Fallen Empire When Evil is Called Good — E.A. Johnston

America’s Moral Decline and the Fall of an Empire

My message this morning is entitled, Fallen Empire, When Evil is Called Good. America is a fallen empire. She has fallen from her lofty heights in the eyes of the world. She has fallen as an economic power and she has fallen morally into a cesspool of perversion quicker than old ancient Rome.

And her empire would be in ruins like Rome's empire was. There were cracks in the crowns of the Caesars and there are cracks in our once great land. I've been an observer of the steady moral decline of America longer than many of you, but not as long as some of you.

In the last 40 years in particular, I've seen this nation both turn its back on God and shake its angry fist in the face of God. America, once great in the eyes of the world, has become a laughingstock and a promoter of evil.

I saw the gold begin to dim in the 1960s when America legislated God out of the schoolhouse. But my goodness, in the last decade and a half, I've witnessed a nation push God out of the judicial system, out of the military system, and plum out of our educational system.

America used to look up to God for guidance and assistance. Now she looks away from him in disdain. And worse than that, from the top on down, America shakes its fist in the face of God by calling evil good and good evil.

Empires rise and fall. America reached its pinnacle decades ago and has been on a slippery slope ever since. America is fast facing destruction and ruin. And meanwhile, the priests cry out, peace, peace, when there is no peace for the wicked.

I've never seen a time in my life where the entire nation has shifted its moral compass to the side of evil by calling it good. Recently, the food company commercial advertising two men married to each other with a child and calling it wholesome is a major red flag to me for this country.

I used to like that food company's crackers, but I won't buy their products anymore. I won't take God's money and give it to an agenda that goes against the Word of God. When an entire nation begins to call evil good and good evil, then that nation is a sitting duck for destruction from an offended God.

Isaiah’s Warning Against Calling Evil Good

I want to read us a passage from the book of Isaiah today because it fits our nation in particular at this given juncture. America is ready to collapse and all one can do is stand back in horror and witness it like we witnessed the collapse of the Twin Towers over a decade ago.

9 -11 was a wake-up call, but I fear most everybody went back to sleep. Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 5. I will first read you our text and then the passage it pertains to. There is a warning here from the Almighty to the nations of the earth.

If a nation fails to heed this warning, then God will come with the woes He has promised to deliver. Here now is our text for today found in Isaiah 5 and verse 20. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Let me state, friends, that this verse contains a warning from Almighty God. When the Word of God mentions a woe upon the wicked, if they turn not, then the woe will surely fall upon them through divine judgment.

God will not be mocked. In this text, God is declaring that there is a woe to fall upon those individuals who dare to call evil good and good evil. Listen, friends, is this not the day in which we live?

Are we not bombarded from Hollywood and Madison Avenue with perversions forced upon us from every direction? It's getting to where every billboard, every ad, every TV commercial promoting evil and calling it good, calling it wholesome, and we better get used to it or we will be viewed as intolerant.

They even say the Bible itself is intolerant. But listen, it's up to the church to cry out against the sins of the land, but few are doing that today. But God's Word will stand against those who call evil good and good evil, for God's hand is against them.

Listen to what the Word of God declares in this passage from Isaiah chapter 5. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteous from him.

Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore, the anger of the Lord kindled against his people and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and the hills did tremble and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this is anger is stretched out still and he will lift up an end sign to the nations from far and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.

I will stop there. The Word of God says judgment will swiftly come to such as mentioned in our passage. Woe unto them is the repeated phrase. There's not a more terrifying warning found in the Word of God than woe unto them.

America’s Approaching Judgment

Listen friends, America can't keep on sinning in the face of God and get away with it much longer when good is called evil and evil good it means that people are ripe for judgment and judgment will come as surely as the sunrise in the morning.

God is letting the cup of America's iniquity get full before he brings the hammer down upon us but I fear we are almost there. This nation sits on a precipice of destruction and it teeters back and forth and all it needs is one good push and down she will come.

Listen to these verses in Isaiah preceding our passage. Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoices shall descend into it and the mean man shall be brought down and the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as if it were with a cart rope. That friends is America in a nutshell and the nutshell is starting to crack. God has a divine nutcracker in his hand and he has the nation of America set squarely in the jaws of that nutcracker and all he has to do is turn over his hand and this nation is gone.

Do you hear me? Gone. But I don't blame Hollywood. I don't even blame Madison Avenue for they're just trying to make a buck and I don't blame the White House and I don't blame the courthouse. They are run by men who are blind to truth.

The Church’s Responsibility for National Decline

I do however place the blame of America's rune at the front door of the church for she is to blame for the condition of our nation. 50 years ago when the church began to dilute the gospel of the son of God and cheapen it to make it more palatable to sinful man then the church quit being the guide and light of the nation and the wheels began to come off.

America in past times has always looked to the church for guidance but when the church is in the same ditch as the nation then the blind lead the blind and you see where that has gotten us. When preachers began to fear man rather than fear God things changed in this land.

When preachers began to remove the blood out of the gospel when they removed the need of repentance and the necessity of regeneration then the wheels came off this whole nation because when the church no longer cries out against the sins of the land and inform man of his duty of repentance and then no one feels they are sinners in need of repentance so sin is no longer mentioned from our pulpits.

God's no longer a God of divine wrath and justice but a good, a loving God who wouldn't hurt a fly much less send anybody to hell. And hell, what is hell? That's a topic you won't hear about next Sunday in most churches in this land even though the entire nation is on its way there.

We've dropped the ball as a church as we were busy building bigger ball fields for our campuses. We've been playing games while people perish into a burning hell but you won't hear a sermon on hell this Sunday morning in your church more than likely.

No sir, you'll hear nice little messages that don't offend nobody and don't save anybody either. When the church fails to call evil for what it is evil then the church sits on the same side of the street as the dance of iniquity and agrees with them through their silence.

And the church in America today is predominantly silent when it comes to calling sin black and hell hot and you sure won't hear about your duty to repent for unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

Hell, Repentance, and the Full Gospel

At least that's what Jesus taught. Jesus spoke about a hell. Jesus died on a bloody cross to save us from our sins and if we fail to exercise repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, we will die in our sins and be cast into that place of torment and misery called hell.

And hell is forever, friend. Hell is forever and ever and ever. It's a place of everlasting burnings but you won't hear about that this Sunday morning. It's politically incorrect. No, you'll hear about the need to contribute to the church because of the building program going on and we just can't let the church down the road get bigger than us and offer more attractions to people than we do while we lose our crowd.

Like I said, I don't blame the White House, the courthouse or the movie house. I blame the church house for her shameful silence in a degenerate age. Soon it'll be too late to cry out against the sins of the land for they will come and lock you up if you do.

Our window of opportunity for reaching this nation with the gospel of Jesus Christ has been wasted on expanding our own campuses and building our own empires while the empire of America has formed large cracks in our moral infrastructure and is ripe for judgment from the hand of God.

Repentance, Prayer, and the Hope of Revival

So why aren't the majority of our churches calling for solemn assemblies and nights of fasting and prayer? Or why aren't our spiritual leaders calling the people of God to repent and turn back to the God of the Bible?

I'll tell you why. They don't want to upset the status quo. The status quo means business as usual. So we will keep on going like we've been going and next Sunday morning, we will play church like we do each other Sunday.

We'll tell a few funny stories. We'll sing a few songs. We'll clap our hands and hear an interesting and encouraging message before we go have our lunch. Meanwhile, America sits on the brink of ruin. Like I said, when the church fails to call evil for what it is evil, then the nation will call evil good and good evil.

That is how we got here. Revival is the only way out. Let us pray. Great God, your word declares, woe unto them that call evil good. This nation has exchanged sweet for bitter who we call evil good and good evil.

Heaven help us. Forgive us, oh Lord, for the great and multiply sins of this land called America. Forgive us for polluting your land with evil and calling it good. You have surely turned us over to our own devices as you did Ephraim when you said Ephraim is tied to his idols.

Leave him alone and leave us alone. For we surely have our idols that stand between us and thee. In former days, you blessed this nation with outpourings of your grace and seasons of revival and national awakenings, but no longer.

We have offended you, Lord God. Now we experience your withdrawn presence because of our vile and wretched sins. Because we have perverted your gospel in the majority of our pulpits in the land. Forgive us, great God.

Be pleased to come again and shower us with revival blessings, oh Lord. In your wrath, remember mercy. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Grant us, I pray, the grace and repentance so we can be turned back to thee.

Turned back in a vital love relationship with thee. Have mercy upon us. Revive us, great God.